Anybody Get a Word?

Good Monday morning, Sweet Things! I hope you are well and prospering in your souls. I am, thank You, Lord Jesus. But it’s no contradiction that I’m also still navigating through a season of concurrent weakness – like my limbs all weigh a hundred pounds – and sadness – like my soul weighs a thousand pounds. I’m trying to get insight into it and gain whatever wealth God wants to give me through it. I wouldn’t be here if I had nothing to gain from it. Scripture assures us of that as children of God. I’m one of those weird people who – as a loose general rule – often wakes up in a buoyant and talkative mood so these days are madly rushing by at a maddeningly glacial pace. I decided last week that, if I wasn’t going to be ushered out of it as quickly as I’d hoped, I’d at least ask God as sincerely as I knew how to use it. To teach me through it. To grant me revelation through it. Growth through it. Dependency. Humility. Living words. I’ve also asked Him to shed light on an area of blackness in my heart that I really, really do not like. We’re working on that.

So, yesterday morning before church I felt Him prompt me to pray with added expectancy toward our church service. That’s not hard for me to do. I love my church so much. I’ve never found church life more fulfilling than in this young fellowship of believers. I pray consistently for God’s powerful, life-breathing Spirit to fall on our senior pastor (my son-in-law Curtis) and on our children’s pastor and our worship teams. That’s my joy. Countless others pray the same things and we often get to behold with great gladness God’s merciful responses to the pleas of our congregation. There is ripe fruit, red and plump, already hanging on the limbs of this toddler tree.

But this time, I felt like God also impressed upon my heart to pray with elevated expectancy for words specifically pertaining to my own condition. My own wondering and pondering. I prayed for everyone in our service but I made a special effort to ask God before I ever arrived in the parking lot that my own ears would be open and that I’d receive the Word wholeheartedly. I prayed that last week, too. And probably the week before. But this time I felt a more! from God. Go to the Scriptures like a starving man clawing for bread.

It’s a weird thing about pain. The deeper it goes, the wider it opens your mouth to the Spirit. Psalm 81:10 “I am the Lord, your God, the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it!” I need Jesus right now. Like you, I always do but I feel its serrated edge against the grain of my selfishness right now. I need His strength. His joy. His hope. And that means that, if I want to, I can sing every word in our worship time as if my life depends on it. I can hear the phrases I’m singing echo somewhere down in my soul, looking for a place to land. I can mean them in a way I don’t have to mean them when life is less mean…if you know what I mean.

Isn’t that the way it goes? It is only in a season like this that I get what I constantly beg God for: an intense relationship with Him where I can sense His Presence and where His Word is life and breath to me. Where the Cross is so much dearer. Where His Spirit seems much nearer. Where I love Him more than anything I can see or touch. That glorious place of the thinning veil.

I couldn’t write fast enough during the sermon yesterday. Our pastor preached from 2 Kings 4 about Elisha and the Widow’s Oil. The widow was in need. Curtis told us that, in our humanness, we despise being in need yet without need, there is no room for the miraculous. He said miraculous provision is our birthright – that we were born again out of profound, unparalleled miraculous provision and that we are meant to experience it often and until our last breath.

He asked us the question, “Do you want to live in the midst of supernatural provision?” and I do! So I wrote down on a stick note, “I WANT TO LIVE IN THE MIDST OF SUPERNATURAL PROVISION.” Yes, Lord, I surely do. Curtis said so much of the time we live the Christian version of ordinary because we either have so much or are satisfied with so little that we can simply take care of ourselves. By all means let’s put to use what God has given us. That’s good stewardship. But let’s not get ourselves in such a self-sufficient rut that we end up missing the supernatural. Wonders can happen when we’re in a place desperate enough to look for them and have the patience enough to wait for them and the prayer life enough to ask for them.

Curtis also said that “If we look around our lives and we have everything we need, then we may need to live a bigger life and set better goals.” The God-nodding kind. The Word-believing kind. The Gospel-living kind. Nothing about Curtis’s quote is in opposition to Biblical contentment. We’re to be content in whatever circumstances we’re in. We’re talking here about fighting the urge in our excess to be content in our self-sufficiency. To see little of God because we need little from God.

And, Girl, it hit. I HAVE A NEED. And I left church yesterday strangely appreciating it. I don’t know how I’ll feel about it by Wednesday but for right now, I’m thinking that an acute need is a good thing. A hard thing. But a good thing. I have never wanted to live a self-sufficient life with purely natural, utterly explainable provisions. I want to live in such a way that I know – I absolutely know – after a long, hungry spell that, when the sun comes up warm and gold and the ground shimmers with manna, only God could have done that.

That’s glory.

Total, unabashed, unspared, unshared credit.

YOU DID IT, LORD. YOU DID WHAT I COULDN’T DO. YOU DID WHAT NO ONE COULD DO. YOU GAVE ME WHAT I DIDN’T HAVE. MADE ME WHO I COULDN’T BE. TOOK ME WHERE I COULDN’T GO.

If I have presence of mind, I’d want to be able to whisper on my deathbed something like, “I’ve seen His wonders. Now, scoot over, everyone, and let me see His face.” Move and let me praise Him.

So, that’s my word from yesterday. I bless the Name of our merciful, patient God for His kindness to give it. Did you walk away from your church with one, too? Then, take a brief paragraph and tell us what it was. Get specific about one point and keep it succinct and direct. Wouldn’t that be a great way to build one another up around here this week? As we encourage one another in our pursuit of Christ, we want to encourage one another in local church life as an essential part of it. (Not the only part, by any stretch of the imagination but an important part.) Body life. It’s Christ’s way. If you didn’t get a particular word over the weekend – if perhaps you had to be out of church or you helped in the nursery or you were there but you just felt off and detached, you’re welcome to share one of ours today. They’re free for all. That’s God’s way. His Word is still alive on Monday.

No matter what yesterday was like, maybe today, after a long hungry spell, you might see the ground shimmering with manna and decide to bend down on those knees, scoop up a handful and eat.

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Psalm 40:5 NIV

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412 Responses to “Anybody Get a Word?”

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As always, our church sermon was filling. Our pastor is a man of the Word and he never lets us down. But it was a quote in my devotional that is sticking with me since Sunday.

“God always hears, and He never forgets. His silence does not mean that He is not listening and is not planning. Probably it means that the best time of deliverance has not come yet, and that He is patiently waiting for the moment to arrive when He may prove his love and His power.” -Springs in the Valley

I have seen this happen in my life. Right now,I need to remember the sea he parted for me before, and keep trusting he will again in his time…

We know about need. Thank you for shedding light on the joy of having need and the assurance of that need being fulfilled. Our need is being fulfilled by getting the word, “Beth Moore is coming to Charleston!” In Sunday school, my husband commented as he taught a group of adults, “I am proud the ladies who have such passion for the August 24, 25th coming of Beth Moore Living Proof Live coming to Charleston.

I love the word picture you shared Beth — I savor my “wide” mouthed seasons of need…God proved Himself more sufficient than I imagined every single time!!!

Today my Pastor asked us “What are you doing with your Freedom in Christ?” My personal paraphrase of his message and pointed question is “Who is my freedom serving, myself, or Christ?” Oh how I desire it to be the later.
Have a super, great, uber-blessed week!!

I’m new to this page…so I’m responding to the present blogs and the later ones. I guess I’m getting caught up…and I mean that in more ways than one.
I love how Paul via the Holy Spirit talks about boasting in our weakness… 2 Coritians 12…because God’s strength is realized in that moment. My Preacher gives little attention to self effort and all the attention to Christ.
I love how Christ felt fed and energized after talking to the Samaritan women with 5 “husbands”… accepting her in His love…and she had to spread the Word…regardless of her reputation.
I love how Jesus did not condemn the adulterious women in the midst of the Pharasies.He was the only one that could have thrown that stone but did not. He asked her to sin no more after He gave her the key to sinning less…His grace and love while knowing all her faults.
I love how Christ spoke the law to the ignorant self sufficiant types like the rich man but spoke grace to the tax collector and went to His house to eat…and watched this man give back what he has taken and more… just because he received Christ grace.
Jesus is just so cool.
I asked God a couple years ago to free me from legalism…you know “How can I love you more” stuff and He told me to just relax and see how much I love you.
I couldn’t even read the Bible without condemning myself because I had this idea that I could be righteous in my obedience. He kept speaking to me the same way He spoke to the rich man…and said, “give up everything…your family, your money…and your will”. Then finally my eyes were opened… cause I couldn’t do it.
I saw Jesus as my righteousness…I saw His Grace and His Love. I realized the true gospel is not about me getting saved by accepting forgiveness for past sins and now I have to be “good”. He forgave all my sins…past, present and future. I’m in with the coolest man/God alive.
Now I read the scriptures with Jesus explaining it all…with footnotes. I identify with all the sinners in the world that received Grace and not as the “vipers”…cause I am in.
So I guess what I am trying to say is that the more we get to know Jesus…the more we know what He is really saying. I can now separate the Word in terms of old and new covenant. I can read the Psalms and see when it talks about Righteousness… it’s not mine but His and I’m covered.
That’s all I wanted to say. Jesus will help you read the Word…and get His grace out of it…but remember that Pauls tormentor was an evil spirit…his thorn in His flesh…a distorter and stealer of the Word.. still present.
He tried his tactics on Jesus when He was being tempted.
OK, not done yet. When the devil attackes you he wiil use the Word and twist it…like he did with Eve. But if you look closely Eve misquoted God as well and said “if I touch the tree…I will die”. God didn’t say that but Satan used that ignorance to take her further…to pick the fruit. As she did that she did not die…so then her doubt was strengthened…as she took the bite.
Jesus was asked, “If you are the son of God…” but he forgot to mention that God referred to Jesus as “This is my Beloved son”…the devil will tempt you to read the Word in condemnation…without your “beloved” status. Jesus was not fooled but referred the devil to God’s Word as something that will sustain us more than bread or the physical.
You are in. So know that your understanding of the Word needs to be read with the awarenes that you are God’s beloved and that you only can rely on His righteousness.
OK, now I’m done…for your benefit…
Deb

Hi, Beth, I’ve taken a dozen of your studies and love you loads. My pastor had a terrible bout with depression a few years ago. Just from doing what he loved–study and preach and teach–but doing too much and not resting and smelling the roses, not reading the Bible just for enjoyment, he tells us. He mentioned it today and said a doctor said it was “garden variety” and he should do certain things and it would be gone in a month, and he did, and he’s back in the pulpit every week again. I don’t know if this helps you or not, but I hope so. I pray you will be your healthy self again right away, in the mighty name of Jesus.

What’s a Siesta?

Isn't "siesta" the Spanish word for nap? Yes! Then why are our LPM blog readers called siestas? One time Beth typed out the word "sistas," referring to our blog readers, and her spell checker wanted her to change it to "siestas." The name stuck! You can read about it here. If you read this blog, consider yourself a siesta! It's just another word for sister.